That was former Senator Warren Rudman's partial explanation, at today's hearing on the Fair Elections Now Act, for how he came around from opposition to "unequivocally supporting public financing" and the Fair Elections bill now before the Senate Rules committee.  Sitting on the second panel, he admitted that he'd grown so frustrated with the dominance of private money in politics that he found public financing to be the most sensible solution.

He wasn't alone.  The bill's cosponsors, Senators Dick Durbin and Arlen Specter, described the same transformation from opponent to champion.  Those conversions are what made today's Senate hearing so promising.